Senior Queensland bureaucrat’s promotion blocked after QIRC rules hiring process botched

A senior Queensland public servant has had her promotion blocked due to no fault of her own, while the panel that hired her has been stood down.

A top ranking public servant has had her promotion blocked after the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission found the hiring process was botched.

A senior environmental bureaucrat has had her promotion blocked after the panel who chose her botched the hire by not properly taking into account the experience of other candidates, a tribunal has heard.

In his decision handed down on June 4, Queensland Industrial Relations Commission

commissioner Peter O’Neill ruled that the process to hire the principal investigator with the state investigations division of waste and enforcement services must be run again.

He ruled the original three-member panel of Martyn Hughes, Matthew Barr and Emilija Rupsys be benched with fresh panellists to be brought in.

Mr Hughes works as a principal investigator, Mr Barr is manager of state investigations within environmental services and regulation, and Ms Rupsys is a principal lawyer within the litigation section.

The decision came after two highly-qualified short-listed contenders won their separate legal challenges arguing the application process was bungled.

Mr O’Neill ruled that the chief executive of the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, must revoke the appointment of employee, known as “AM”, within a month.

There is no suggestion AM was not qualified for the role to which she was appointed.

He ordered a new selection panel be formed to choose the best candidate from the top five on the short-list.

“I find that the promotion decision appealed against was not fair and reasonable, as the selection process was deficient,” Mr O’Neill ruled.

“Assessments for advertised positions must consider all the information before the selection panel, rather than rely or focus on one aspect of the process, such as interview performance.”

The job was advertised with applications due by February 5, and “AM” was chosen.

On February 26, the executive director of waste and enforcement Jackie McKeay approved AM’s selection, the decision states.

The public announcement that AM would be promoted to the AO7 position was made in the state’s government gazette on March 21.

The gazette states that she was previously a senior investigator within the youth justice department’s ethical standards division, an AO6 position.

Her LinkedIn profile states she has worked for the state government since 2018, having come from the Metropolitan Police in London where she spent 13 years.

The appeal against the decision to promote AM to the QIRC was made by two public servants who made the five-member shortlist – ex Queensland Police detective Anthony Green and Ricky Dodds, who had relieved in the department’s AO7 principal investigator role.

Both already worked for the department as investigators.

In relation to both Mr Green and Mr Dodds, Mr O’Neill states that the selection panel made a mistake when it “solely” focused on their interview performances.

The panel failed to consider both men’s other eligibility such as previous experience, resumes and written applications, Mr O’Neill states.

Mr Green was ranked fourth in the order of merit, the decision states.

Mr O’Neill stated that he “would have expected” the panel to have analysed Mr Dodd’s work performance when he was relieving in the job, and comparing him to the four other finalists.

Twenty-nine applications were received, 19 candidates were from within the state government and ten were external, from differing backgrounds and lines of work.

The pool of hopefuls ranged from having no experience in investigations, to very experienced, the decision states.

Mr O’Neill stated in his ruling that the decision would “impact” AM.

“It is indeed unfortunate that her appointment to the role has to be set aside due to no fault of her own. It will also inevitably lead to a further period of uncertainty for each of the five short-listed applicants and for DETSI’s State Investigations Unit,” he wrote.